Andrew Liszewski

We assumed the gorgeous 8K ultra-HDTVs we saw at CES this year were years away. But Japan's NHK has just completed the first over-the-air broadcast of a 7680x4320 signal using UHF frequencies—just when you'd finished paying off your giant HDTV display.

Sharp's lineup of TVs has been pretty lackluster so far. Oh! Except for this 85-inch 8k…
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The compressed Super Hi-Vision signal, as the NHK calls it, was broadcast over a distance of about 2.7 miles without any errors on the receiving end. So it's not like the broadcaster has started blanketing Tokyo in a glorious 8K signal just yet, but it's an important milestone. And to facilitate all that data, 16 times the resolution of a 1920x1080 HD image, the researchers spread the signal across a couple of UHF frequencies. Which means that one day the government might have to rustle up even more spectrum space if 8K ends up replacing our recently-deployed hi-def networks. [NHK via AV Watch via Engadget HD]